Tide is turning

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For close to a century, the Drake family has fought to promote
the virtues of the Sydney rock oyster, the beloved local species
cruelled so often in recent years by disease and environmental
problems.

Indeed, as an industry leader, Bob Drake campaigned ferociously
to repel the spread of the rock's nemesis, the Pacific oyster, the
Japanese shellfish which somehow took hold here illegally in the
1980s.

For years, fierce debate has raged over the supremacy of each
variety. The plumper Pacific has slowly won over fans, who swear it
has greater flesh and more flavour.

Equally passionate hordes cannot bear to shift from the
indigenous oyster that once grew so plentifully along the shoreline
of Sydney's waterways - but no longer.

The QX virus of the 1990s wiped out the last remnants of the
once prolific rock oyster industry, which flourished particularly
in the Georges River. The rock, of course, is still grown in other
parts of the state, but it is under threat.

Last year, QX, to which the Pacific is immune, devastated a
small parcel of racks on the Hawkesbury River, the first time it
had been detected outside the Sydney basin. So, with the rock being
ravaged by QX, a disease that invades the oyster's shell and
corrupts its flesh - and with no likelihood of a cure - Mr Drake
begrudgingly looked to the Pacific he abhors as the only way to
keep his family's passion alive.

There was one small problem, however. It has been banned in all
waters except Port Stephens, where it has flourished in the
contained environment for more than a decade.

But after conducting an environmental analysis, Mr Drake
surprisingly won the backing of the Carr Government to establish a
small holding in Woolooware Bay, with a rare experimental licence.
It turned the Pacific's greatest critic into its veritable
gatekeeper.

"I don't like them at all," he said. "We fought it [expanding]
bitterly, and I believe strongly that the Sydney rock is a superior
oyster, vastly superior.

"But there does not appear to be a future for the rock in Botany
Bay, so we are conducting this experiment. I am obviously hoping
that, if they are big enough, I will be able to take a sample to
the processors I always used to serve. And then, hopefully, I will
be back competing in the marketplace on freshness and taste."

The director of fisheries management, Nick Rayns, said all
efforts were being undertaken to control the spread of the Pacific
oyster but the experimental licence was warranted, given the rock's
plight.

Under the licence's conditions, Mr Clark can grow only triploid,
or infertile, oysters - and their passage to Sydney from Tasmania
is strictly policed.

Soon experts will examine Mr Clark's racks to ensure the
neutralised oysters are not breeding. "We don't want our coast full
of a feral species. We want natives," Mr Rayns said. "But there is
no immediate cure to the QX ... so we think this is
appropriate."

Department of Primary Industries researchers are working to
develop a disease-resistant rock oyster but a solution is far off.
Scientists are also trying to eradicate QX, "for which there is
nothing we can do about at the moment", according to Mr Rayns. "It
is a very difficult organism to deal with."